Monday, March 27, 2006

Goldstein dissects YWCA daycare paper

I have still not gotten 'round to a detailed read of last week's so-called "study" released by YWCA Canada. But fortunately, Toronto Sun senior columnist Lorrie Goldsteinhas. Goldstein found that the report was gerrymandered from beginning to end:

This left-wing women's group which is virulently opposed to the Conservatives' child-care plan claimed its study showed, as The Canadian Press and others dutifully reported, that "Canadian families, irrespective of where they live or the size of their communities, want their child-care needs met by a nationally funded public system and not a federal cash payout."

Gee. Sounds like they conducted an independent national poll asking unbiased questions which found overwhelming support for a publicly-funded national daycare program, eh?Uh ... no. In fact, I've read their report, called "Building a Community Architecture For Early Childhood Learning and Care" and YWCA Canada did nothing of the sort.

What it did do was organize task forces of 20 to 30 people each, most of them already highly supportive of a state-funded daycare program, in four communities -- Halifax, Vancouver, Martensville, Sask. and Cambridge, Ont. These people then talked to other people sympathetic to a national daycare program and guess what? This report based on those reports advocates a national daycare program, which just happens to be the YWCA's long-held position as well. Amazing!

Goldstein also notes that the paper was funded by the federal government through Social Development Canada back when the Liberals were in power.

I would add that the report's so-called "expert panel" included longtime government daycare shills Martha Friendly and Kerry McCuaig. Another member is Charles Pascal, executive director of the Atkinson Foundation, an outfit funded out of Toronto Star profits, that is no stranger to bogus public policy research (scroll down to the "Speaking Out" report).